The Mastery
by Jelibean323
Summary: Harry is excited about finally achieving his Masters and wants to share the moment with his best friend. Short Harmony. First attempt. Hopefully not OCC. Rated M, but nothing too vulgar ( at least by my standards). Post Hogwarts. Not epilogue compliant.


**This is my first attempt at a Harry Potter fic. It is a one-shot, but shares a couple ideas with another HP fic I am currently working on. I was super excited that, not only did I have an idea, but I was able to write it. Might have let my excitement get the best of me though, because this is completely unbetaed. Heck I reread it three times, which is not enough for me the catch my own mistakes, but I really wanted to share something with you guys. Hope you enjoy it. Don't be shy on noticing any mistakes. I want to fix them. Let me know when something doesn't make sense. I want to fix it.**

 **Disclaimer: All character rights belong to the Rowlings. I just play around with them.**

 **XXX**

The Mastery

Six years. Six bloody years and finally Harry Potter could claim a title he wanted. Harry Potter, Master of Defense Against the Dark Arts, or as he currently calls it, Defense Against Magical Arts. It took years for him to push aside the bias and prejudices he had toward the "darker" magics. He never truly realized how much he was limiting himself, his mind, and even his own magic by seeing magic in just two categories of Light and Dark. Magic was boundless, yet restricted. Impossible, yet not impossible. Magic was – complex. If anything, Magic was a spectrum of frequencies, something he learned from his best friend, Hermione Granger. Who he was excited to share his good news.

The fireplace of his parents' home, now his, lit up as he walked through from the Ministry.

"Hermione!" he yelled, dusting the ash off his robes. "Hermione!"

He knew she was here. At least, every Friday, when neither of them were busy, she would come over after work and they'd have dinner or something to catch up on each other's lives. And since neither one of them cancelled on the other, Hermione was here.

"Kitchen."

Harry briskly walked into the kitchen and his senses were assaulted. Hermione was standing at the stove working on what he could only hope was Arroz con Pollo. It smelt like it and it was honestly the only thing she could cook properly. Bless her magic, but Hermione could not cook. Potions she could do, almost a master, but once you ask her to fry fish or soft boil an egg, ward the kitchen off and pray. It was reassuring knowing that there was something she could not do, not that he would gloat about that, in her face anyway.

She turned and smiled brightly at his entrance. Her smiled was blinding, but it didn't stop him from noticing how the white summer dress with sunflowers she loved to wear on the first day of summer brought out the golden undertone in her almond complexion. Or how her wand was holding her curly hair up at the top of her head, a small coiled strand escaped at the base of her long neck. The same neck he found he enjoyed massaging after she had a stressful day. Or how she was wearing the bunny slippers he gave her last holiday with any socks, something that annoyed him relentlessly. Her feet were always cold, always, yet she refused to wear socks. Annoying.

"Honey, I'm home," he smiled, dropping into a chair at the kitchen island. That had become their greeting to each other about two months into their relationship.

"So, I've heard," she chuckled, turning back around to check on the stove. "Dinner's almost ready."

"Chicken and rice?"

Hermione whipped around and glared at Harry. "Arroz _con_ Pollo and yes."

"Chicken and rice," he smirked. He knew it got under her nerves when he called arroz con pollo, chicken and rice. This was recurring "argument" they both have been having since she graduated from Hogwarts, seven years ago.

Hermione huffed and crossed her arms across her chest, choosing to ignore his poor attempt to rile her. "Anyway, any news on your mastery? I know the board was looking over your proposal earlier this week and I haven't heard anything about it yet."

Hermione was still new to the Board of Magical Governs, an elite group of masters who committed themselves to the achievement of magical potential and knowledge. The Board of Magical Governs had a small committee that approved all masteries. Once approved of a mastery, you became an automatic member of the board and could be asked to be on the committee to help approve potential mastery proposals.

"Maybe," he drawled out coyly.

Hermione lit up and leaned onto the island between them. "Maybe? Like a yes, maybe?"

"More like a definite yes maybe." He grinned.

Hermione shrieked and ran around to hug Harry. "HARRY! I told you it was brilliant. I'm so happy for you! Oh my—wait," she ran back around to the stove and turned off the burner under dinner. "We have to celebrate! We must tell Ron. And Neville. And Luna. And – oh wait we should pick up Teddy from the Burrow so he can come too! HARRY!"

"HERMIONE!"

"HARRY!" she ran back around and embraced Harry again.

He chuckled, tightening his embrace around her. "I just want to stay here and have dinner with you. OK? We can celebrate with everyone later."

"But this is – "

"My moment," he pulled back a little to look into her eyes, hoping to convey his point," and I choose to spend it here."

She blushed, faintly, at the intensity of his gaze. "I can at least pick up a cake or something. We still have time before the bakery closes."

"Ducky," he said, kissing her lightly in the space between her eyes. Ducky was the pet name Hermione's parents called her. It was about three years ago, that she told him the story behind the name and she's regretted even since. Harry would call her by her pet name and suddenly get whatever he wanted. His personal magic word.

 **xxx**

 _"_ _Stevie Wonder is in performing in London, let's get tickets." said happily. Stevie Wonder was one of his favorite artist and had to go to a concert in all twenty- four years of his life._

 _"_ _Harry, I can't. This bill must go in front of the Wizengamot next week. I need to make sure everything is correct." She responded distantly._

 _Harry rolled his eyes at her, not that she would notice with her nose stuck in the scrolls. He pulled the papers from out of her grasp and she glared at him. Too bad he was immune to the Moine-glare. It only took twelve years to develop a tolerance to it. No big deal._

 _Grabbing her shoulders and staring intently in her eyes, "Relax about the bill. This is Stevie Wonder. WONDER! Ducky, we are going to the show."_

 _"_ _Okay," she replied dreamily, almost putting Luna to shame. "The bill's not important anyway. Who cares about the building of actual working relations with goblins. They hate wizards, especially you and I."_

 _xxx_

 _"_ _Skip out on the memorial with me," said Harry, staring grimly into the fireplace. He was absently stroking through Hermione's hair, who's head was resting on his lap._

 _"_ _Harry, we can't," her voice groggy on the verge of sleep. "We, especially you, are expected to attend."_

 _"_ _But- "_

 _"_ _How about we just make an appearance then leave. I don't want to go either. Maybe get some stuff from Fred and George."_

 _"_ _Sure, I guess. But, Ducky, can we go to the Leaky after and get pissed. Please." Harry was a lightweight and Hermione was angry drunk, so binge drinking wasn't usually they partook in._

 _"_ _Okay," she whispered. "Who needs a liver anyway. We'll just drink our worries away. Maybe you and Neville can get into another brawl, that was entertaining. The twins have a running…" she trailed off, falling asleep on Harry's lap._

 _xxx_

 _Harry and Hermione were eating takeaway at Harry's after a long day at the Ministry. "Wanna go out for dinner? "he asked._

 _"_ _We are currently having dinner, Harry" Hermione said, stating the obvious._

 _Harry paused, not completely use to the sass of his best friend. He was the sassy one. "I meant tomorrow, smartarse."_

 _"_ _Ask the right questions and you'll get the right answers, Harry, but yes, I'm not doing anything. Want to have a game night with everyone? Ron's has been begging for a Jenga rematch."_

 _"_ _I meant more like a date. A dinner date. Only us. As more than friends."_

 _"_ _As more than…Harry? But we both— "_

 _"_ _I know what we said Hermione, but I think, maybe, we should explore the possibility of us. Don't say no, Ducky. Please?"_

 _"_ _O-Okay. Let's just put years of friendship to the test and hope for the best, right. It's not like we-," she snickered under breath. "This is mental."_

 _"_ _You're starting to sound like Ron."_

 **xxx**

"Okay," whispered Hermione, "It's your thing. Not saying we wouldn't have a good time with all our friends, but what do I know." She wasn't aware of the ongoing trend of the powerful 'Ducky', all she knew was that she really liked the way he said it.

"Plus, there's something I wanted to discuss with you." He pushed her away gently and stood up from his seat. "You finish up dinner and I'll set the table."

Hermione walked back to the stove and finished dinner. It only took Harry less than five minutes to set the island, so he decided to grab some drinks from the fridge.

"Anything special you want to drink?" he asked poking his head into the fridge.

"No. I'll have whatever you have."

Harry pulled out two ales and closed the fridge.

"New picture?" He noticed a new drawing stuck on the freezer. The fridge was cluttered with drawings from Teddy, pictures of his friends, invites (only ones he cared to attend), and magnetic numbers and letters from when Teddy was younger.

"Yeah. You haven't put up any new pictures in a while, so I asked Teddy to draw something. It's pretty good."

"He always did have a talent." He said to himself, straightening the drawing and couple pieces of the fridge clutter, then walking back to the island to sit. Hermione filled both of their plates and took a seat next to him.

"So, what did you want to discuss with me?" taking a bite of her rice.

"I thought of attempting another mastery." He said nonchalantly. Hermione pounded her chest as she chocked on her food. She never expected him to decide to attempt another master so soon, hell she did two at once and she almost burned down all of Wizarding Britain with fiendfyre in a fit of rage.

"Really?" she crooked, grabbing her drink to take a sip. "Are you sure? You do remember how much stress you were under attempting this one?"

"Yup," he nodded. Not that he wasn't hungry, but his nerves were a bit busy for him to focus on eating right now. Seven months. Seven months of nerves and now how was finally going to do it. Getting his mastery today was pure fate and was the perfect cover for his plan. He didn't know how he would pull this off otherwise.

"It's actually something I've been working on for a while now."

"Wow, Harry. I can't say that I'm not surprised." She couldn't believe that she hadn't noticed Harry starting another proposal. "How long ago?"

"Seven months."

Hermione dropped her fork. Seven months? He's been keeping this secret for seven months. Hell, she was madder at the fact that she didn't notice for seven months. "I'd love to help if I can. What are you trying for? Potions? Charms? Oh—Transfiguration?" she said, suddenly extremely excited.

"Um, right—no, more like a personal study, right now. Haven't declared yet" He said, sipping his ale. Completely ignoring his dinner, by now.

Hermione tilted her head and raised her right eyebrow at him. Harry loved it when she did that.

"All proposals start off as personal studies, to me anyway. Might as well combine both steps in my book. So, what do you need me for?"

"Because I'm doing my study on you." He said cheeky, finding confidence out of nowhere.

Hermione paused at his words. Over the years, she realized that Harry was full of surprises, but this one takes the cake. "What? What can you study about me?"

"Everything." Harry set down his drink and turned Hermione's seat around to face him. Hermione was in such a state of shock that she didn't notice when he suddenly found his way standing in between her legs, only to be brought out of her stupor when he kissed her. It was a deep kiss. A hungry kiss. She was so caught off guard by his intrusion, that she didn't notice when he pulled her closer to him. Harry's hands gripped her bum and he pulled her as close as he could. He loved her bum, possibly his favorite body part of hers', after her lips, and hair, and nose, and brain, and – hell, he just loved her body.

He began moving his finger, massaging her rear end. A moan escaped from Hermione's mouth. She broke the kiss to catch her breath and maybe get back on topic. Not that she didn't enjoy kissing Harry, but his was getting out of hand quickly. Harry took this as an opportunity to make his way up and down her neck, sucking gently at the fleshly crook of her neck.

"Harry," she whispered, trying to regain some control of the situation, unsuccessfully. "Harry, your mastery. We were discussing your mastery."

"Um hm" he hummed into the neck. He went to the other side of her neck, for- research. Controls and variables and whatnot. "Working on it," as he continued kissing her. His hands started to wander up, past her hips, past her waist, then separately on continued up her back and the other went back down to rest on her thigh.

"I don't – I don't, ohhh, that tickles Harry."

He pulled back a little to look he in the eyes. "I'm doing my mastery on you."

"How"

"Simple. I want to know Hermione Granger. _All_ of her. I want to know what makes her tick." He pecked at her lips. "I want to know how she feels when do this," as he grounded his hips into hers. A guttural moan escaped her lips this time and he pecked her lips again. "I want to know if she likes it when I touch her here," rubbing his hand up and down her thigh, "or here" his husky voice said as he massaged the back of her neck just at her hairline. "I want to know if she likes it when I kiss her like this," and he pecked her lips once again, "or like," grabbing the back of neck firmly and kissed her deep.

Harry was incredibly proud of himself, this wasn't how he intended this to go but he wasn't complaining. Hell, it was way better, then what he planned.

 _Don't mess this up. Don't mess this up. You only have one chance, Potter, and you've already strayed from your original plan._ He thought.

Hermione had no words, only sounds. She honestly wanted a better understanding of the situation, but was one kiss away from not caring anymore. Honestly the mastery could wait. She liked the direction this was going.

"I want to know," he picked her up by her bum sat her back over on the island counter. The chairs wouldn't work well with his plans, so the island was the perfect height for what his intentions. "I want to know how low I can get her to say my name. Will it be a whisper when I do this?" as he leaned down to kiss across her collarbone.

"Oh Harry," she sighed. Her breath swaying the hairs at the top of his head just a little.

"I want to know," he said coming back up trailing butterfly kisses up to the side of her mouth, "how loud I can get her to scream my name. Will it be so loud that it shatters glass, when I do this," as his hands shot up under her dress and his thumbs swiped over covered chamber.

"Gotdamnit" she flinched in surprise. That was a sensitive spot.

"Hmmm. Not my name and not loud enough," he smirked into her lips. "Willing to try again later, for research purposes."

This brought out a chuckle from Hermione. "Harry what are you doing?" she laughed, leaning back on the island to put a little more distance between them.

"I told you, I'm working on another mastery.," he repeated, grinding his hips into hers again and leaning, not liking the distance between, at all.

 _This is going too well._ He thought

"Okay, I'll play along, Harry," pecking his cheek then leaning back onto her elbows.

"This," peck, "is not," peck, "a game." Harry closed the distance between them with each peck.

"Harry, what about dinner?"

"Says the person who constantly skips meals to work. You should be proud that I've started to take after you." His hands roamed up and down her sides. "Maybe I'm not explaining this correctly" he sighed, resting his head in the crooked of her neck. "You know I'm not the best at getting my point across, verbally. Action is my preferred method of action, nine time out of ten. But sadly, this requires a bit more verbal-ation."

Hermione laughed and ruffled his hair with one hand. "You're cute, when you struggle with words."

"Cute? Cute? According to _Witch Weekly,_ I'm devilishly handsome."

"When was the last time you read an issue?"

"Ha!" he barked. "Got me there. But back on topic. Will you help me?"

"I guess. I'm still not sure what it is you want from me, exactly."

"I'm confident you'll understand it better once my proposal is approved."

"Then I'll speak with the committee and see if I can get you a meeting as soon as possible. I'm helping the committee next week on a possible proposal."

"You do that and when you do, if you could kindly take my proposal with you. I stuck it on the fridge."

"Really?" she stared at him in disbelief. "I've looked at that fridge all the time, when— "She stopped short when she looked over at the fridge. "Harry? What… I mean…huh," she stumbled, glancing back at Harry, then back at the fridge, then at Harry again.

"Hey, don't look at me like that. Public speaking is you thing. I hope you don't choke on your words like this when you explain my proposal. Hold on." He reached down into his pocket, struggling a bit because of their position on the island. "Ah, here we go. Maybe this will help." He brought up his fist and opened it front of Hermione's face, presenting her with a simple gold ring. It's was of no intricate design, just a gold band with a small round pearl between a square ruby and sapphire.

"You see, I need you to approve this proposal before I can go on with my mastery. I figure, since it took me six years to get my first mastery and that wasn't took bad. Actually, kind of enjoyed it." Hermione gave like a skeptical look. "I mean outside of the days when I wanted to burn everything down. Anyway, I think I can commit a couple more years toward another mastery."

"You think?"

"Bad word choice. I really meant to say was that I plan on committing an unimaginable amount of time toward this and I would really, really, like it if I could get your approval, Ducky, before I move into the next stage."

"Okay."

"Just okay?"

"Yes."

"Just yes?"

"Yes! What did you expect me to say?"

"Honestly, you usually have much more to say. I've been carrying this around for months, almost had a nervous breakdown on a mission last month and all I get is an okay. Where's you little side remarks, like 'how I'm rushing my best friend and girlfriend of only eight months into marriage.' Or 'normal people get on one knee and don't try to take the love of the lives on top of a table in a barbaric attempt to ask for their hand.' You know, something like that."

"Harry?"

"Yes, Hermione?"

"This is a very uncomfortable position."

"Really? I'm pretty comfortable. Beside my heart literally trying to beat out of my chest."

"Harry."

"Fine." He pulled her back up and kissed her once more, putting the ring onto her finger. "So, should we have dinner now or go straight to dessert?"

"Dinner. You've chosen a pretty time consuming mastery and will need large amounts of energy." She said, hopping off the island and taking her seat.

"Good choice, because I'm actually famished. It would have been a disappointing dessert on my part." Taking his seat and began digging into his warm dinner. "This is really good chicken and rice," he grinned.

 **XXX**

 **So, how was it? Not my usual fandom. and definitely not my favorite pairing (DracoXHermione, but Harmony is a close second) Leave a review. Show a little love.**


End file.
